Because of sore feet, 2 women rejected free tickets to Jason Aldean and avoided what became place of carnage

From left, Kim Ramier, Lou Cummings and Kathy Saunders at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Saturday evening. The next night, Cummings and Saunders turned down tickets to a festival where crowds were targeted in a mass shooting. (Submitted by Kathy Saunders)

Two Fredericton women narrowly missed being in the thick of Sunday night's mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Kathy Saunders and her mother, Lou Cummings, are vacationing in the city.

After catching a Michael Jackson ONE Cirque du Soleil show at the Mandalay Bay on Sunday night, Saunders and Cummings decided to walk back to their hotel.

They stopped by the stage at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival and were approached about tickets to watch the final act, Jason Aldean. He was about to begin his performance.

'I can't believe just that split-second decision not to go — I mean it would have been as likely that we would have been there.'- Kathy Saunders

"As we were standing there listening to the music, a couple approached us, and said, 'We're leaving. Would you like to have our tickets?'" Saunders said in an interview with the CBC's Shift.

Saunders initially said no but changed her mind a minute later.

"I thought it might be worth seeing," she said. "But luckily [my mother] had turned in the other direction. Our feet were quite sore, and we decided not to."

It was only after Saunders and Cummings returned to their hotel, Elara, and turned on the local news that Saunders realized what she and her mother had just escaped.

At least 59 people were killed and 527 others were sent to hospital after a gunman, from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, sprayed the crowd at the festival with thousands of bullets.